Partition issues

[caleman]

Hi,

I've got a few questions about editing partitions.

1. After I delete a partition, how can I move the leftover space into another partition, essentially expanding a partition? Or is this impossible? For example, I've got 4 partitions. Let's call them A, B, C, AND D. A and B and C are all 100 GB and D is 15 GB. I don't want the D partition, so I erase everything on it and delete the partition using the windows disk management application. Then it shows that I've got this unused space of 15GB. I don't want to create another partition of 15GB, I would like to make partition C 115GB instead of 100GB. How?

2. My operating system and everything I've ever saved on my computer is on a "Logical Drive" partition and not a "Primary Partition" partition. I may have done this myself when I installed my new windows 7 Pro. So, Is this OK? My OS is not installed on C or the other "primary partition". Is this a problem? Will leaving it like this ever cause a problem?

3. How can I change the drive letter of the partition that my OS is on? I tried using windows disk management but it brings up an error saying "the parameter is incorrect". Does anyone know how to solve this?

Thanks for your replies!

 

[Bill2]

Hello Caleman, we meet again.

1)In Windows disk management, a partition can be expanded to cover unallocated space provided such space is located contiguosly on the right side of that partition as seen in the disk management window. So, in your case if D: is located next to C: on its right side, you can expand C:. But 3rd party software like Partition Wizard and Paragon have apparently many more options.

2)Win7 will work perfectly well from a logical partition. In this case there is another, primary partition where the bootloader is located. But there should not be any problem.

3)The incorrect parameter error has probably to do with the fact that the drive is in use. See if the option exists through a 3rd party software. But remember, some programs may refer to the drive letter for environmental variables so changing the drive letter may result in such programs not functioning correctly.

 

[caleman]

hello again!

1. Yes. i saw the 'expand volume' button but it wouldn't allow me to select it. It just isn't highlighted at all. So I'll have to try 3rd party software.

2. I think my bootloader is located on my logical drive along with my OS. The "status" of my Logical drive with the OS on it says 'Healthy (boot, page file, Logical Drive)'. Is this what you're talking about?

3. Yea, I guess I don't really need to change it. Is there any way to figure out ahead of time which programs would stop working?

Thanks.

 

[Bill2]

MS naming convention is very strange, to say the least. The logical drive you have windows installed on is a "boot" partition. The boot partition is the disk partition that contains the Windows OS files and its support files, but not any files responsible for booting. The boot sector and files such as NTLDR that are needed for booting are located on the "System partition".

 

[caleman]

ok, thanks again for everything.